The Shahba Canton^[3][4][5] (Kurdish: Kantona Şehba, Arabic: مقاطعة الشهباء, Classical Syriac: ܦܠܩܐ ܕܓܙܪܬܐ, romanized: Pelqo d'Shahba) is a political unit of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, in the Aleppo Governorate.^[6] The canton was established to administer the areas captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant west of the Euphrates, as part of the Afrin Region.^[1][2][7][8]

Quick Facts Kantona Şehbaمقاطعة الشهباء, Country ...

Shahba Canton Kantona Şehba مقاطعة الشهباء
Canton
Seal
The Shahba Canton is part of the Afrin Region (orange).[1]
Country	Syria
Governorate	Aleppo
Council of Shahba created	March 22, 2016 (2016-03-22)
Administrative center	Tel Rifaat[citation needed]
Government
• Co-president of the Council of Shahba	Ismail Musa[2]
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Area code	+963 21

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The Shahba autonomous region was founded during the first and second conferences of the Shahba region in Afrin on 28 January 2016 and 2–4 February 2016. The conferences set up the Shahba Regional Assembly with its own council and senate and a de facto autonomous administration, created on 22 March 2016.^[2][9][10] The borders of the canton are subject to change as a result of military developments in the Syrian civil war.

Shahba is a nickname for the city of Aleppo.^[11] The Shahba Canton originally denoted the parts of northern Aleppo Governorate of Syria that are under the administrative control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria as part of the Afrin Region. Accordingly, the canton initially included Manbij,^[1] but by 2019, Shahba Canton had been restructured and only included the area around Tel Rifaat and Menagh.^[12]

The population of Shahba Canton mainly consists of Arab Syrians, with an additional considerable Syrian Turkmen and Kurdish population; among the latter are many people displaced by the Syrian civil war.^[13][14][15] Fabrice Balanche claims that toponymy and maps published by the French colonial authorities indicate that a significant percentage of inhabitants of Shahba who are officially classified as Arabs have Kurdish origins.^[13] From early 2018, thousands of Kurds fled from Afrin and resettled in Shahba Canton.^[12]

As of March 2016, Society for Threatened Peoples estimated that there were 450 inhabited villages in the Shahba plain to the north and the east of Aleppo around Azaz, Al-Bab, Manbij and As-Safira, claiming 217 of these settlements to be Kurdish.^[16] However, in Fabrice Balanche's article from the same year, it was claimed that the Kurdish population in the Afrin canton at the time (which included the "nearly 100 percent Kurdish" western Afrin district) was going to be diluted to 30 percent with the possible incorporation of the Shahba plain.^[13] Likewise, Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies disagreed with the estimates of the Society for Threatened Peoples, claiming that it inflated the local number of Kurds.^[17] The ethnic makeup of the area was also affected by the Syrian civil war; for instance, in several cases Arab families in the Shahba plain fled the advance of the YPG/YPJ, whereas Kurds fled from Turkish and allied forces.^[14]

Tell Rifaat is the largest town in the canton. According to the 2004 Syrian census, Tell Rifaat had 20,514 inhabitants.^[18] Following the Turkish Operation Olive Branch, many Kurds, Arabs, and Yazidis fled to the Shahba Canton, forming five refugee camps near Tell Rifaat.^[14][15] In 2020, the Rojava Information Center claimed that Tell Rifaat housed 200,000 internally displaced persons; a local in Shahba Canton estimated in late 2021 that the number was closer to 100,000.^[15]

Since its foundation the Shahba Canton has a Shahba Regional Assembly with its own council and senate.^[31][10]

Shahba Regional Assembly has a direct representative inside the Democratic Syria Assembly (MSD) and Cîhan Xedro is also formally elected to represent the Al-Shahba Canton inside the MSD.^[8]

Shahba Canton is governed following the Constitution of Rojava. It is noted for its explicit affirmation of minority rights, gender equality and a form of direct democracy known as democratic confederalism.^{[32][33][34][35]}

Article 8 of the 2014 of the NES constitution stipulates that "all Cantons in the Autonomous Regions are founded upon the principle of local self-government. They may freely elect their representatives and representative bodies, and may pursue their rights insofar as it does not contravene the articles of the Charter."^[36]

The governing party of Shahba Canton is the Syrian National Democratic Alliance (Arabic: التحالف الوطني الديمقراطي السوري, TWDS). It is a left-wing multi-ethnic political party established in 2014 in northern Syria.^[37]

On 12 March 2017, the Legislative Assembly of Manbij approved the elected co-presidents who then took office. During the meeting the departments of the committee members, co-presidents and committees were determined after speeches and evaluations. 13 committees where determined.^[38] The 13 new committees include 71 Arabs, 43 Kurds, 10 Turkmen, 8 Circassians, and an Armenian and a Chechen.^[39]

On 2 April 2017, the Shahba Council held a meeting with residents of Nayrabiyah village of the Al-Bab Subdistrict & announced the creation of the Nayrabiyah Council.^[40]

To the east, in Manbij, public schooling has regained secular normalcy after the ISIL episode.^[45][46]

• Federalization of Syria
• Rojava conflict
• Rojava